Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mahdi Sadeghi ¹
• Mina Noroozi ²
• Fatemeh Kargar ³
• Zahra Mehrbakhsh ⁴

¹ Food, Drug and Natural Products Health Research Centre, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

² Department of Biostatistics, PhD Student in Biostatistics, School of Health, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran

³ Institute of Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

Abstract

Aims: This study designed to investigate the concentration of some heavy metals (HM) in the soil of agricultural land of Gonbad-e Kavus in Golestan province and relationship of these metals with esophageal cancer disease. Materials and Methods: For the investigation of pollution, especially HM in the soil, 5 points were randomly selected from each village (3 villages). The samples dried and screened by 200 mesh sieve.Then, the samples were analyzed for HM using ICP/MS. Results: The mean of Cadmium (Cd), Zinc, Cobalt, Chromium, Manganese, Nickel, Arsenic, Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), and Iron (Fe) in soil was 0.5938 ± 1.7, 74.06 ± 18.9, 12.06 ± 1.28, 68.68 ± 5.85, 627.37 ± 53.3, 38.43 ± 4.4, 6.51 ± 1.21, 29.37 ± 4.3, 17.25 ± 3.5, and 27766.06 ± 2200 mg/kg, respectively. Conclusion: The concentration of metals except Cd and iron was less than the global standards. The concentration of some metals in the soil is almost high due to the high consumption of urea, phosphate, and nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, it is recommended to educate farmers and use less chemical fertilizers.

Keywords

• Agricultural soil
• esophageal cancer
• heavy metals